A new agreement preserves health insurance options for 26,000 State of South Dakota employees. State leaders and Sanford Health negotiated to cover state employees at an in-network cost. That allows some DakotaCare patients to see Sanford doctors without huge price increases.

A visible member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe says work between Indians and the rest of the state is not done. While much of the country took Monday off for Columbus Day, South Dakotans celebrated Native American Day. Leaders made the decision to change the holiday years ago. One man says some people still don’t use the holiday’s proper name.

JR LaPlante spent nearly four years as South Dakota’s first Secretary of Tribal Relations. He says changes made in 1990 were not answers to Native-white relations, but starting points. He says issues still exist.

A recent surge in sexually transmitted diseases in South Dakota is prompting free screenings in Sioux Falls. Planned Parenthood is providing tests for four STDs at no charge this week. The advocacy group and a doctor with the state agree that STDs are a growing public health concern.

The state epidemiologist says South Dakota had record numbers of STDs in 2014. By the end of the year, 4,170 cases of chlamydia were found in South Dakota. That’s the most ever reported in the state in one year.

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